• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Prose of a Con

Poetry and Prose by Russell Wardlow

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
    • Culture
    • Inside
    • Love
    • Mercy
    • Spirit
    • Trauma
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Spirit

The Question

June 4, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

here, is a choice
now hear the choice.

“this,
or,
that?”

but there is no choice, only pretense
and an option given to you within its confines
the choice has already been made for me
you just have to accept which choice you’d like to be made
and what freedom
or choice
you’ve negated,
or defaulted from even understanding it enough
for true decisions and discernment
to be given the light of day
the choice is an illusion
the actual choice is a mask,
disguising a question
the question is,

“do you identify with the illusion of separation
or not”

because no choice can be made completely independent of the other
so the thought process is on display
and a statistic is able to be made
your inclination able to be predicted
because you never chose
nor do you ever choose
you have a lifelong history
of succumbing
unbeknownst to you of course
for a lie can not survive
without the illusion giving it cover

the question is really a litany of queries
do you adhere to impositions more than freedoms
do you negate reason
can you make your own decisions
are you able to see more than what’s presented
can you think for yourself
can you ask why?

but if you believe in things being separate and not equal
nor interrelated
and interdependent
as all things having
a mutually beneficial correspondence to one another
you will always be duped
and miss the point
because the base has evaded your senses
and in each moment
has become a sensual prison
you call existence and live in

do you know all the dynamics of what is being asked
or proposed here?
are you willing to put in work and research for yourself?
if not…
that’s what I thought
because you were taught to think that way
and so the cycle continues

onto the next question…???

Filed Under: Spirit

Obtuse

May 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

I have something to say!

my crass ass,
cracked the glass!

I’m not feeling your sound
we’re out of harmony
one of us
lacking the rhythm of the moment

my crass ass,
cracked the glass!

if you knew what you knew
would you stay in that knowing,
and what would you do with that knowledge?

or will your crass ass
crack the glass?!

Filed Under: Spirit

Lost Senseless, in this World

May 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

how can I search for
what can not see me
when I can not see
that which I search for
is what I’ve lost

is it that,
the sparkles I adorn
secure me in darkness I trek?
or women I’m smitten
esteem the man in me vexed?
and places I dream
fulfill the foster child’s hex?
and the connections I’ve sought
are as shallow as texts?

moment to moment
I am any stranger’s guess
be it that the lost
tire from strain of conquest
for what is the state of my heart
and heredity of my fate
if my mind can never rest
as it fears silence
and the depth of breath

Filed Under: Love, Spirit

Misguided Astronautical Musings

May 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

unsuccessfully
I chased you to Moon and back
traversing zero gravity
exploring parts unknown
rationalizing my own self-destruction
for gain of more insecurity
worth its weight in vanity
landing back time again
let down, confused
empty-handed
with a starving heart
until finally realizing
how far and long
I’ve traveled and wondered
outside of myself
then learning
that I am space
to which
the universe, the moon, and love
all reside
“Houston,
I’m finally coming back home,
for good.”
for an astronaut
is but a hopeless romantic
searching outside
for the very things held within

Filed Under: Inside, Mercy, Spirit

Real Views

May 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

it was my projection
which made me wise
wise enough to know
that the mirror
made me ignorant
understanding the cast of my world
is just a reflection of me

Filed Under: Spirit

All Grapes Whine

May 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

gripped
by grappling gripes
grappling
gripes gripped
gripes
grappling my grip

there’s no grapes
worth whining over
for it is your own produce
aged over time
filling your cup with wine
as you drink the wisdom of Self

only the ignorant
and deceivers in tow
refuse the taste
of their own brew

Filed Under: Spirit

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 77
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is a collection of Russell Wardlow’s prose and poetry written entirely behind bars. Through writings on family, spirituality, freedom, love, justice, redemption, and vulnerability, Russell seeks to show the humanity and hope of individuals like himself who are incarcerated.

Read More

  • Whose Mind is it Anyway June 30, 2022
  • Objects June 30, 2022
  • Same Thang, Different Name June 30, 2022
  • Optical Ill-lusions June 30, 2022
  • Hollow Symbols June 30, 2022

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma
  • Uncategorized

Footer

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is sponsored by giveabeat.org

  • Instagram

Navigation

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma
  • Uncategorized

Prose of a Con © 2025 · web design by Studio Lyko